Eötvös Library

The base of the Institute’s library is the library of the Eötvös Collegium that was founded in 1895. The historical seed of the collection derives from the library of baron József Eötvös, the catalogue of that library has been published.

The library, after the closing of the Eötvös Collegium in 1950 became part of the library of the Hungarian Academy of Science and in 1956 it became the field library of the Institute of Literary Studies. The head librarians of the library were Sándor Szőke (1956–1963), Kálmán Bor (1963–1973), Sztoján D. Vujicsics (1973–1975), Béla Stoll (1975–1977), Miklós Németh (1975–1986) and Katalin S. Németh (1986–2007).

As the result of deliberate acquisitions the library’s book stock at present is close to 140 000 volumes. Along with the preservation of already extinct magazines 250 periodicals' new volumes enrich the collection.

The library’s collection of interest is the entire field of literary science (emphasizing on contemporary Hungarian literature, history of comparative literature, theory of literature and Renaissance research). The social science field library is collecting the most important Hungarian and foreign classical science literature on a daily basis. The foreign publications are mainly obtained via international exchange. The entire collection of the library is in a catalogue which is organized in alphabetical order. Since 1992 the present increase can be found under our internet address. At the same time we are continouosly and methodically working on the retrospective catalogue conversion. This work is being done with the help of the a Medea Services Kft.).